1. Industrial Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of an adjustable mold for continuous casting of articles of different thicknesses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a technique concerning a so-called article thickness variable mold for continuous casting in which the mold cavity is selectively defined to have a desired thickness by replacing only lateral frames held between longitudinal frames, there has conventionally been known a mold, for example, disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 62-72749. In this example, one of the longitudinal frames constituting the mold is fixed, and the other free longitudinal frame opposite to the fixed one is movably attached to the fixed longitudinal frame. Lateral frames of a size corresponding to a desired thickness of a cast piece are replaceably held between those two longitudinal frames. Frame cooling water supply/drain pipes associated with the respective lateral frames are replaceably connected to opposite ends of the free longitudinal frame.
With the conventional mold for continuous casting, however, the whole lateral frames must be detached from their transfer devices in a narrow space on the machine, and this operation not only takes much labor but also is dangerous. In actual practice, therefore, the whole mold is removed from the machine and transferred to a workshop, and then, the lateral frames are replaced by new lateral frames for a desired article thickness. In such a method, it takes a long time to change the mold size. Also, various kinds of molds for replacement which have sizes corresponding to predetermined thicknesses of cast pieces may be prepared in advance so as to use one of them to replace the mold every time the cast piece thickness is changed. However, this arrangement is extremely disadvantageous in respect of cost reduction because expenses for its equipment are high.
Taking the problems of the above-described conventional technique into consideration, the present invention has an object to enable quick replacement of lateral frames without disassembling the machine, thus improving the operational efficiency and reducing the cost.